In Hawaii, Metrosideros polymorpha – known as ōhiʻa lehua – flowers in shades from deep crimson to orange, apricot, yellow and sometimes white.
Slightly different in genus but similar in spirit, it is a pioneer species that colonises fresh lava flows, turning barren rock into forest.
Like pōhutukawa, ōhiʻa lehua carries cultural weight. In Hawaiian tradition, it is linked to Pele, goddess of volcanoes, and Laka, goddess of hula. Its resilience mirrors the pōhutukawa’s grip on coastal cliffs – both symbols of endurance and renewal.
In New Zealand, gardeners and park visitors report apricot and pink blooms dotted around the country, including places such as Whangārei, Long Bay Regional Park, Cornwall Park, Pukekohe, and Whanganui.
The yellow variety, Metrosideros excelsa “Aurea” (gold), is considered rare. It flowers for a shorter time and often several weeks before the red variety.
For decades, experts believed all yellow trees descended from two discovered on Motiti Island, in the Bay of Plenty, during the 1940s.
Horticulturist Victor Davies propagated cuttings from those originals, creating the stock seen today.
Metrosideros polymorpha, in Hawai’i. Photo / Timothy Kroessig
But a huge specimen at Okitū, near Gisborne, challenges that theory.
Planted more than 100 years ago by Taare Werihi, also known as Charles Ferris (1867–1958), it likely grew from seed collected in Northland forests and would predate the Motiti discovery by decades.
It is the last survivor of a group Werihi planted along the Wainui foreshore, most lost to erosion and development. His descendants say the tree is part of a legacy of preserving native flora.
Werihi’s great-granddaughter Nikki Searancke said: “He had no whakapapa to Motiti Island, so unless one of his many peers and mentors – people such as Sir Apirana Ngata, Peter Buck, and Maui Pomare – put him in touch with locals there, he was unlikely to have obtained any seed from that source.”
Werihi did not propagate plants from cuttings, always preferring to gather seeds, which he never took without permission, Searancke said.
He was known to have visited many of the primary forests in North Auckland and Northland to which he had whakapapa.
“Many people don’t realise he was instrumental in preserving the genealogy of New Zealand’s primary native forests through his passion for collecting seeds from the flora within them,” she said.
This huge Metrosideros excelsa “Aurea” (gold) pōhutukawa at Okitu, near Gisborne, is believed to have been grown from seed gathered from a Northland forest more than 100 years ago. Photo / Sarah Curtis
A grafted tree combining New Zealand’s traditional red pōhutukawa (Metrosideros excelsa) with the less common yellow variety (Metrosideros excelsa “Aura”).
The Okitū tree appears to be the same era as another pōhutukawa Werihi planted on family land at Wainui, which has uniquely small pinkish-red flowers and blooms for only a week around Christmas.
“To preserve the species, he wouldn’t have planted just one,” Searancke said.
But many of the others he and another notable Gisborne man, William Douglas Lysnar, planted along the Wainui foreshore have been lost to development and erosion.
Lysnar was a business partner and friend, and the pair shared a keen interest in the natural environment of the East Coast.
The land on which the remaining yellow pōhutukawa stands was formerly ancestral land that Nikki’s mother, Ingrid Searancke – a kaumātua of hapū Hine Haeretaua – signed over to the council during the 1980s to ensure the trees would be protected under a formal plan.
Yellow and orange flowering pohutukawa in Long Bay Regional Reserve, near Auckland. Photo / Robin Kavanagh
Born in an era when cars were not commonplace, Werihi was an avid walker who embarked on vast journeys, taking ancestral routes to navigate long distances.
“It was not unusual for him to walk from Gisborne to Napier,” Nikki Searancke said.
He supported his family through farming, but his pastime was venturing into areas of primary forest to collect seed for important and unusual native species.
He and Lysnar were passionate about establishing native trees along the coastline between Tuaheni Point and Nuhiti.
Werihi was also a staunch advocate for the land passed down through his and wife Raiha Kamau’s whakapapa, much of which remains in Ferris family hands today.
His ability to articulate in court helped fend off legislative forces that cost many other Māori landowners their holdings.
Sarah Curtis is a news reporter for the Northern Advocate, focusing on a wide range of issues. She has nearly 20 years’ experience in journalism, most of which she spent court reporting in Gisborne and on the East Coast.